Probably not, because the rate we'd decelerate the moon with our lasers would probably be slower than the speed it'd be traveling at towards us, and the time frame we'd have to try and decelerate it would be fairly short, (it'd take us longer for it to initially break free of our gravity well than it'd take for it to hit the earth after coming back into range of our lasers), so more than likely at best we could slow it down somewhat before it crashed into us. Of course, if it crashes into us at all, no matter how much we slowed it down, it and the earth both would be so heavily damaged that even if we somehow survived, we'd probably never be able to get it back of the earth.
Yeah, actually a really good fit for XKCD's overall vibe - gets the job done and point across, but sort of has a minimalistic, "hand drawn" sort of feel.
It's helpful to know that, since people think "oh, I won't shine it in my eyes or anyone else's eyes, so I don't need goggles", that any minor reflective surface you happen to briefly shine upon can also cause instant blindness (or, at least, spots in your eyes that never go away for the rest of your life).
@@djmewtwo6981 It was fictional anyway, we could go higher. Result is likely not anything crazy though, just faster melting and higher speed of the moon being pushed away.
Laser Ablation is cool for other reasons. When I was a kid I had a genetic heart condition, I had (at the time) experimental laser ablation surgery to remove the fat cells that were growing in my right ventricle. Unfortunately it wasn't also enough power to send me into orbit
Another reason I adore that all the what-ifs are being re-released in this manner is the chance to view the pre-to-post laser transition in the video editing directly.
What if we accelerate overpopulation by something like 1000× then time travel a million years into the future and try MORE POWER!!! You Someone proceeds to say "The su- no you have it wrong Peter's thought experiment is a deadly laser!!!
@@Angrydestoyer69420 This made me understand that the Deathstar wouldn't pierce immediately through planets, but create a similar effect where plasmatised matter blocks the laser's way and can fling planets away
So you‘re telling me, if the Star Wars Deathstar were physics accurate, it would have just accelarated Alderaan gently away from itself (while still killing everyone on the Planet)? Dann that would have been way funnier. Just seeing it gently drift away with Vader just standing there like „we spent our entire Budget on THAT?“
The ability to directly see the transition from pre to post laser in the video editing is actually amazingly nice and another reason I love that all the what ifs are being re-released in this format.
@@johndc2998 some when ago a what if video was released about everyone of earth being teleported to the same spot. Spoiler. A rapid food/water shortage would occur and most of us would die. Those who didn’t would be forced to go looting as the lack of people left alive would soon lead to catastrophic systems failures.
@@raizin4908 Can't you theoretically use VR goggles in passthrough mode (or something similar to them) as eye protection? Especially against the wavelengths that are very hard to combat. Technically they're completely opaque, they just record video using the cameras and transmit it in real time to the screens. Yes, laser may permanently ruin the cameras, but I doubt it will have a chance to permanently ruin operator's eyes
forgot to do the scenarion where every 5mw laserpointer was inhumanly precise and all of them were pointed at the exact same spot on the moon: how many cats would chase it?
my favorite thing about this TH-cam fixation Of that book, is the sound effects. I assume that’s Randall doing them all, in which case it perfectly matches, the hand drawn style of the images. Great choice, and makes these terrifying scenarios very playful
The ability to directly see the transition from pre to post laser in the video editing is actually amazingly nice and another reason I love that all the what ifs are being re-released in this format.The ability to directly see the transition from pre to post laser in the video editing is actually amazingly nice and another reason I love that all the what ifs are being re-released in this format.
Best "what if" content ever, seriously. I actually once thought about the possibility to change the color of the moon and my first idea was to use lasers. Thanks again XKCD, cannot wait until your next project already.
This question is very dear to me. It's how I discovered Randall, because my father bought the book and told me: "Read this, it's fun" and I got engaged extremely quickly
1:04 "What if we tried more power?" 1:53 "What if we tried More power?" 2:23 "What if we tried MORE power?" 2:50 "What IF we tried more power?" 3:18 "What if WE tried mOrE power?" 3:37 "WHAT IF WE TRIED MORE POWER?" 5:25 (Missing) "What if we tried MOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAREEEEEEEEE power?"
4:02 We killed everyone. 4:07 What if we didn't kill everyone? 4:11 Scorched Earth on another level, but that's not all. 4:39 Moon laser tennis, and scorched Earth again. 5:18 We deserved it.
@dieselgoinham for 1.4 acres I reckon 1100 is enough, solar motion lights are the bulk and a red Ryder for mice and raccoons, right in the rump "oh that smarts" and they leave, at a distance of course, 70-80ft
You will reach a point where there’s enough energy concentrated in one area to spontaneously generate a black hole with a mass equal to the entire universe. There’s now no more power anywhere that can be had. Ever. Game over.
Why are we lighting the whole moon? Point every laser at a single point would we be able to see a red dot on the dark side? I feel like that’s what the question was asking.
Pretty much impossible to keep the beam that narrow, and you're assuming superhuman ability to maintain aim ... and that's before you factor in any refraction due to thermal layers or atmospheric motion.
@@coreykesler739 the thought experiment already assumed the humans had perfect aim, and that the light spread evenly on the surface, so if you said the surface was about 1 cubic km, and humans had said superhuman ability on top of them having 1 watt lasers, I would definitely still be curious as to what the possible result could be.
I have a laser pointer, I'll start
bet
Here’s one more!
If planes get away, you can make them get out of the way by pointing a laser pointer at them
In all seriousness though don’t do this
Let's go
Got another two here!
Start of the video: let's point a small laser pointer at the moon.
End of the video: alright here is how you build a death star
But it's not a death star because we didn't blow up the moon... but what if we had more power...
@@MachanicalChicken "Well, first you're going to need several obscenely large kyber crystals..."
As a wise man once said, "The death star made a 18 magnitude earthquake happen on alderon"
@@ewhschrisc "Unfortunately...the Death Star has to be mechanical while our moon is natural."
most save thing we evere did
0:15 "We can gather everyone into one spot but we've learned our lesson about that already." Well done on the reference!
@@AbqXay9/11
@@AbqXayI do
@@EukieNI now pronounce you, husband and wife.
"Unharmed atmosphere" quickly reverting to "Harmed atmosphere" was a good one
Reminds me of the "Unsuspecting Pitcher" to "Vaporized Pitcher" one from the light speed baseball video.
Homestar Runner energy
@@austinrimel7860 In this world, you're either unsuspecting, or vaporized.
I was naively hopeful at the start that this would be one of those rare times that an XKCD video didn't destroy the earth.
watch the earthquake one. that is literally the only what if episode where he tried not to destroy the earth for once.
@@AbrahamShannon-z8p I mean, the earth still got destroyed... But it did end on a light note!
If it doesn't at first, it will eventually.
More Power!
Hey, if you can picture a science experiment that COULDN'T hypothetically destroy the Earth, you're not sciencing right!
In the original blog post it didn't. The lasers got so strong they vaporized the moon, which lead to a pretty funny "before & after" picture.
I gotta say, of all the mediums I've experienced "what if" in, my favorite element of the video format is the bespoke "pew pew" sound effects
5:18 ah, but then we could just use the lasers again to force the moon away
Could play moon tennis with ourselves, if we manage to get the moons trajectory right every time.
Probably not, because the rate we'd decelerate the moon with our lasers would probably be slower than the speed it'd be traveling at towards us, and the time frame we'd have to try and decelerate it would be fairly short, (it'd take us longer for it to initially break free of our gravity well than it'd take for it to hit the earth after coming back into range of our lasers), so more than likely at best we could slow it down somewhat before it crashed into us.
Of course, if it crashes into us at all, no matter how much we slowed it down, it and the earth both would be so heavily damaged that even if we somehow survived, we'd probably never be able to get it back of the earth.
@@Gamer3427 It's fine. The laser killed everyone a long time ago.
@@Gamer3427that just means we need more and better lasers
@@Gamer3427bigger laser maybe 🤔
this was my favorite answer from the book, so glad it’s covered in video format now!
same! i remember reading it after watching a vsauce video that briefly mentioned it
I still can't believe I lost the book. Such a fun read when I was little.
th-cam.com/video/XnjIXSWdt4Y/w-d-xo.html
There is a proper Talk from Randall on this very subject with slides and everything. th-cam.com/video/avYPeoU0nI8/w-d-xo.html
That one and the mole of moles are the two I love the most
"Can I light up the Moon?"
NO
"Why not?"
YOU DON'T HAVE A DEADLY LASER
for whatever reason my mind read that last sentence in the tone and rythm of "The sun is a deadly laser"
and I'm not unhappy about that
@@cdxlvi that was probably the intended reference
The sun is a deadly laser, it surely can! Right?
♫ Not anymore there's a blanket! ♫
(Of 500 TeraWatt lasers covering the Eastern Hemisphere oh god oh no somebody stop this!)
@@Neubulae Acually, its not. Lasers are coherent sources of light whereas the sun is anything but that.🤓
i like to think that someone had an unhealthy level of hate toward the moon to come up with this beautiful thought experiment
Probably Piccolo.
mustve been markiplier during that one distractible episode
Eggman
i have come to make an announcement
@@williamjohnson5022Beat me to it
5:27 "What if we add more power?"
The moon would instantly explode
@@SmoothBrain-YT what if we add more
@@gameingboy9541Haven't we all seen Starwars by now?
MOAARR
@@gameingboy9541 it explodes harder
“What if we tried more power” is the xlcd moto
K, not L.
Yeah, and then usually everyone dies.
@@avarionargos Yup!
Maybe hes making a joke, like lcd. But it's a bad joke. 😅
@@Haezard this was my third attempt to spell it. Just gave up and went with it
Long-time XKCD readers will understand how appropriate it is that black hat guy is the one continually escalating the scenario
He's the Classhole, do not forget.
Some things never change, and black hat guy is as ever the agent of chaos. I was delighted to see that it was him saying "MOAR POWER"
He is Br*tish😡, No wonder He keeps wanting more Power /s
MOAR POWA BABY@@Fenriswaffle
I fully expected Black Hat Guy to ask "What if we used more power?" again, _anyway,_ even at the end.
Glad to see if we add enough power we can recreate the plot of Sonic Adventure 2
Next video: What if everyone AND every frog pointed a laser at the moon?
Well this is a weird crossover of my interests, hello Shayy
What the hell is funny Undertale man doing on an XKCD video?
I love it!
"What if everyone pissed on the moon?"
Next video we will be turning Shayy into plasma and ignite the atmosphere of his bedroom
And Master Roshi did all of this with just his hands.
I was looking for this wow
kinda really does put the actual power scaling of fictional stuff into perspective a bit lol.
4:20 "I've come to make an announcement..."
...AT LEAST someone REMEMBERS SA2,HEHE
...THANKS A LOT,HEHE
We pissed on the moon, Obama you idiot!
How you like that, Obama!?
How do you like that, Obama?! I pissed on the MOON, you IDIOT!
is it about sonic and adultery ?
The sound FX production is outstanding
Yeah, actually a really good fit for XKCD's overall vibe - gets the job done and point across, but sort of has a minimalistic, "hand drawn" sort of feel.
Hand blown
vuvuvUVUVUVU FZZZZZZZZZ
It's been mentioned in the other vids but the sound effects are done by the technology/engineering educational channel Know Art!
Yeah, they're great!
1:30 Nice Tipp that safety glasses only work (as protection against the Laser) if they cost more than the Laser.
*Makes cheap safety glasses but adds encrusted diamonds on the rim of it* okay guys its safe now
It's helpful to know that, since people think "oh, I won't shine it in my eyes or anyone else's eyes, so I don't need goggles", that any minor reflective surface you happen to briefly shine upon can also cause instant blindness (or, at least, spots in your eyes that never go away for the rest of your life).
So a welding mask won't work?
@@revanati222 If talking about blue lasers (as in that part of the video), depends heavily on their rating for the visible spectrum.
so how much does the sun cost
but , what if, we tried more power?
There’s not more power that we know of that’s the strongest lazer we know
@@djmewtwo6981 It was fictional anyway, we could go higher. Result is likely not anything crazy though, just faster melting and higher speed of the moon being pushed away.
"We gave every 8 billion humans a quasar"
@@Spacebug111 At that point, we are moving the Galaxy with our Lasers.
*Tim Taylor grunts in the distance*
I absolutely love that these scenarios always get pushed to the point of catastrophic reactions plus an actual answer to the question
It starts off with barely illuminating the moon and ends off as Moonfall. What a wild ride.
th-cam.com/video/XnjIXSWdt4Y/w-d-xo.html
... is this a Sentinel Comics reference..?
@@ScrewdriverGamingI don't know these comics or how popular they are, but i find it more likely OP was referencing the 2022 Roland Emmerich film.
It was such a “blast” to watch
3:01 there's..... someone on the wing
Twilight Zone reference
@PainoMailo also ace ventura
He's trying to fly it from the outside according to How To
Jerry
of course, someone needs to "hold" the laser pointer to stay true to the thought experiment
What an amazing proposition. Instant subscription :) Keep it up!
Laser Ablation is cool for other reasons. When I was a kid I had a genetic heart condition, I had (at the time) experimental laser ablation surgery to remove the fat cells that were growing in my right ventricle. Unfortunately it wasn't also enough power to send me into orbit
Why not try again now?
So, you're saying you had your fat heart lasered away.....There has got to be a joke in there somewhere....What if we used more power?
@mandi8345 "Oops we vaporized the heart."
"Can we swap in that kidney? "
Exploding the cells using lasers may be the coolest tech ever
Or maybe fortunately
eggman wasnt kidding in that announcement, huh?
Another reason I adore that all the what-ifs are being re-released in this manner is the chance to view the pre-to-post laser transition in the video editing directly.
I’m so glad this what if got animated. The escalation from shooting a laser pointer at the moon to destroying the earth is amazing to watch!
Is it really a What If video if it doesn't end with the destruction of humanity?
@ True
IVE COME TO MAKE AN ANNOUNCEMENT!!
I ventured to the comment section to find this. Thank you.
Is this about your wife?
@@QuantaStarfireI think it's more about a hedgehog
P!$$ ON THE MOON!!!
snapcube spotted!!!
5:22 .... but what if we tried more power 😅
You incinerate the moon
.... But what if we used 8 billion death star lasers?
What if we accelerate overpopulation by something like 1000× then time travel a million years into the future and try MORE POWER!!! You Someone proceeds to say "The su- no you have it wrong Peter's thought experiment is a deadly laser!!!
@@Angrydestoyer69420
This made me understand that the Deathstar wouldn't pierce immediately through planets, but create a similar effect where plasmatised matter blocks the laser's way and can fling planets away
@@Angrydestoyer69420 what if we gave everyone a copy of the laser we created
So you‘re telling me, if the Star Wars Deathstar were physics accurate, it would have just accelarated Alderaan gently away from itself (while still killing everyone on the Planet)?
Dann that would have been way funnier. Just seeing it gently drift away with Vader just standing there like „we spent our entire Budget on THAT?“
Don't be so proud of this technological terror you constructed. It doesn't work very well...
Now everyone is dead and you get an empty planet! You went from Darth Vader to Frieza
There is the alternate hypothesis that it detonates the core rather than vaporizing the planet. How? Shrug.
th-cam.com/video/XnjIXSWdt4Y/w-d-xo.html
Blowing up a planet is an absurdly inefficient way to kill everything on it.
Teacher:the test isn't that hard
The test:
3:05 is that a person holding on for dear life on the wing?
you got it all wrong, this person is just holding the plane-sized laser pointer
Yeah that's Jerry
William Shatner must be aboard.
It's Arthur Dent
@@terrain4print I don't see a towel
Start: light up the moon
End: I’ve come to make an announcement, shadow the hedgehog is a b-
Obama won't like this...
I too thought of the eclipse cannon lol
“What if we tried more power” Can’t think of a harder quote than this
The sound effects given to the lasers are the difference between life and death
Tim Taylor Technology at its finest.
The potential downside is attracting a giant space cat that could knock the moon out of orbit.
Binford Tools approves this message
There's always a "end of humanity" scenario in these videos, I love it.
1:00 What if everyone is pointing at the side that's not lit by the Sun?
It's explained more in the book, but short answer: still basically nothing.
That would mean 30,000,000 w compeating against 3,225,000,000,000,000 w because it's half the cross-section of the moon. Still nothing.
Timing for new moon should be better.
@@musaran2 but the new moon is in the sky at the same time the sun is, so we wouldn't even be able to see it to aim.
@@brunoparga New enough to reflect little sun light, filled enough to be in night's darkness.
"And that, at last, is enough power". Brilliant.
Lies.
What if we aimed more power at other things?
This was the first and most definitely not the last time i saw your videos. Thanks for making my brain feel massaged.
this was my fav answer on the book omg, the hat guy with the “what if we tried more power?” lives in my heart rent free.
🖤
This was one of my favorites from the original What If? book. Happy to see it animated here!
I love the sound effects on this channel.
This has always been my favorite. Best line from the original column is "the moon leaves"
That is wonderful. I laughed at his delivery of "Well done, team."
The ability to directly see the transition from pre to post laser in the video editing is actually amazingly nice and another reason I love that all the what ifs are being re-released in this format.
Yes, this is probably my favorite chapter in your What If books. Love it ❤
0:15 "We can gather everyone into one spot but we've learned our lesson about that already." Nice reference!
I dont get it😂😭
@@johndc2998Watch his other video named "What if everyone jumped at once?"
@@johndc2998 some when ago a what if video was released about everyone of earth being teleported to the same spot. Spoiler. A rapid food/water shortage would occur and most of us would die. Those who didn’t would be forced to go looting as the lack of people left alive would soon lead to catastrophic systems failures.
Randall: "This question isn't NEARLY ridiculous enough for me."
I was just talking to my son about laser ablation. This video was so topical and well done. Thanks for creating videos of these.
This is a very compelling advertisement towards the purchase of a suspicious $200 1W blue flashlight with a very narrow beam
😉 😉
and for protection goggles that cost even more
@@raizin4908 Sucks to be you; I'm already blind.
@@raizin4908 Can't you theoretically use VR goggles in passthrough mode (or something similar to them) as eye protection? Especially against the wavelengths that are very hard to combat. Technically they're completely opaque, they just record video using the cameras and transmit it in real time to the screens. Yes, laser may permanently ruin the cameras, but I doubt it will have a chance to permanently ruin operator's eyes
@@akeem2983 Good one! I think that should work, yeah, if you don't mind damaging the cameras.
5:00 Earth is going super saiyan!! (Manga edition!)
"What if we used more power?"
Then we have Doctor Eggman's super laser piss.
bro created the death star
forgot to do the scenarion where every 5mw laserpointer was inhumanly precise and all of them were pointed at the exact same spot on the moon: how many cats would chase it?
That means all the cats on the planet simultaneously jump...which we've established does nothing.
@@LashknifeTalonLet's just hope they aren't all in Rhode Island
@@sfc0450 because then, the cat population will go nearly exctinct, and the united States of America will be overwhelmed with cats for about a year
can we all just take a moment to appreciate that he literally makes the sound effects by just mimic the sounds it would make with his voice
Can we come on land?
"NO" why?
"THE MOON IS DEADLY LASER (ROCKET)"
4:40 I saw this in a dragon ball episode.... ka me ha me....
SPECIAL BEAM CANNON!
GALICK GUUUUUN
FIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRREEEEEE!!!
SHIN...
KIKOHO!!!!!
*”STOP MOCKING ME!!!”*
Well in the very early episode of DBZ, piccolo just casually destroy the moon to detransform kid sangohan. So yeah 😅
The sun might be a deadly lazer, but what about 8 billion confinement beams?
Props to this channel for answering the questions beyond the scope of the original questions. 💯
3:50 The Matrix of leadership!
You got the touch!
It did destroy unicorn in the movie.
I'm subscribing because you make some interesting topic videos
The Earth burning while using the most powerful laser makes it look like it went super saiyan and used the most powerful kamehameha against the moon
th-cam.com/video/kWmMCxRyUbs/w-d-xo.html
oh my god this was my favorite one from the book ever since a kid
THANK YOU for doing this one
my favorite thing about this TH-cam fixation Of that book, is the sound effects. I assume that’s Randall doing them all, in which case it perfectly matches, the hand drawn style of the images. Great choice, and makes these terrifying scenarios very playful
The ability to directly see the transition from pre to post laser in the video editing is actually amazingly nice and another reason I love that all the what ifs are being re-released in this format.The ability to directly see the transition from pre to post laser in the video editing is actually amazingly nice and another reason I love that all the what ifs are being re-released in this format.
The moon coming back for vengeance is the best outcome, I think.
It would Earth’s attempt at becoming the DeathStar.
"That's no moon; It's a planet."
@@TinyDeskEngineer "That's no planet; It's a planet and a moon."
It would be Earth inventing moon billiards (with mega-laser cue stick)!
Ganymede, side pocket--
I like your in depth analysis so much! 😂
Best "what if" content ever, seriously. I actually once thought about the possibility to change the color of the moon and my first idea was to use lasers. Thanks again XKCD, cannot wait until your next project already.
This question is very dear to me. It's how I discovered Randall, because my father bought the book and told me: "Read this, it's fun" and I got engaged extremely quickly
I like the "piu!" "Whooo" sounds you made you are so good at that
1:04 "What if we tried more power?"
1:53 "What if we tried More power?"
2:23 "What if we tried MORE power?"
2:50 "What IF we tried more power?"
3:18 "What if WE tried mOrE power?"
3:37 "WHAT IF WE TRIED MORE POWER?"
5:25 (Missing) "What if we tried MOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAREEEEEEEEE power?"
4:02 We killed everyone.
4:07 What if we didn't kill everyone?
4:11 Scorched Earth on another level, but that's not all.
4:39 Moon laser tennis, and scorched Earth again.
5:18 We deserved it.
UNLIMITED POOOWWWWEEERRRRR
Thank you for the sound effects. It made my day.❤
So this is your first video that I have watched and guess what!!!
You earned a sub
The sounds effects are the funniest thing ive heard in a long time
It's fun watching this and wondering "is he going to add more power?" And then he does every time lol
Please do the pressure cooker one, it's amazing and more people need to see it!
2:24 Okay, at this point, I would have told him "No, no more power. This is getting out of hand." 😂
OKAY BUT HEAR ME OUT. WHAT IF WE ADD...
MORE POWER????
What a fascinating way to reunite the Earth and Moon!
Thank you Peter for the interesting question, i had fun watching.
I did not expect this video the end with a concept for a "darker and grittier" Space: 1999 reboot.
“I pissed on the moon!”
-Doctor Robotnik
Love the sound effects on this one
3:24 the sound effects are peak
I'M PISSING IN THE MOOOOOOOOOON!
super clean and understandable speech, great vid
0:25 In the first sec I thought he was giving the moon the finger. ^^´
lol
Love the sound effects.
2:01 I live rural and always have my 1100Lm light on me for skunks and bears, trust me when i say its VERY bright, and it gets warm while using it.
Try the nightcore edc27. 3000 lumens and it’s like 5x1x0.5inches.
@dieselgoinham for 1.4 acres I reckon 1100 is enough, solar motion lights are the bulk and a red Ryder for mice and raccoons, right in the rump "oh that smarts" and they leave, at a distance of course, 70-80ft
@dieselgoinham mice get a different treatment on my brick siding though
@ No such thing as enough when it comes to lights. I’m out on 3/4 acres with the RPR in .22 and a can lol.
th-cam.com/video/XnjIXSWdt4Y/w-d-xo.html
OK but hear me out: What if we tried more power?
You will reach a point where there’s enough energy concentrated in one area to spontaneously generate a black hole with a mass equal to the entire universe. There’s now no more power anywhere that can be had. Ever. Game over.
I love this video 😂
silly, smart, nerdy, interesting, entertaining, informative
10/10 for sound effects in this episode!
Why are we lighting the whole moon? Point every laser at a single point would we be able to see a red dot on the dark side? I feel like that’s what the question was asking.
Pretty much impossible to keep the beam that narrow, and you're assuming superhuman ability to maintain aim ... and that's before you factor in any refraction due to thermal layers or atmospheric motion.
@@coreykesler739 the thought experiment already assumed the humans had perfect aim, and that the light spread evenly on the surface, so if you said the surface was about 1 cubic km, and humans had said superhuman ability on top of them having 1 watt lasers, I would definitely still be curious as to what the possible result could be.
@@coreykesler739yeah no shit we also wouldn't be able to get all people to one spot its a hypothetical scenario
Randomly popped into my feed. What a gem.
Instantly clicked on the notif, thank you Randal
"I've come to make an announcement!"
Love the video! Cool to see the books in video format. Love the sound affects too!
Any one else going to buy the new What If?
I love these questions
That’s a good point, we shouldn’t focus so much on the moon
let it be
Those laser sound effects are everything